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| Ring Shout by P. Djèlí ClarkThe premise: In 1920s Macon, Georgia, sorcerer D.W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation has unleashed an army of racist demonic monsters known as Ku Kluxes.
Starring: a trio of battle-hardened Black women ready to protect their town from the cosmic horrors lying in wait: sword-wielding Maryse; sharpshooter Sadie; and World War I veteran Chef.
Who it's for: This gruesome and darkly humorous alternate history will appeal to fans of Black-authored stories that interrogate the racist tropes of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction, like Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom. |
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| Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth; illustrated by Sara LautmanThen: In early 20th-century Massachusetts, a series of mysterious deaths at a girls' boarding school are linked to the provocative (and real) 1902 queer memoir The Story of Mary MacLane.
Now: On the set of a high-profile horror film about the incident, creepy phenomena begin plaguing the cast and crew.
Read it for: a sardonic metafictional storyline that blurs the lines between past and present; evocative black-and-white illustrations that capture the novel's eerie gothic tone. |
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| The Loop by Jeremy Robert JohnsonWhat it is: a fast-paced techno-thriller set in the small Oregon town of Turner Falls, where a biotech company loses control of an experiment with devastating potential fallout for the town and the entire human race.
For fans of: apocalyptic stories that combine elements of horror with social satire, such as Wanderers by Chuck Wendig or Mira Grant's Newsflesh series.
Reviewers say: "unputdownable" (Publishers Weekly); "heart-pounding and deeply unsettling" (Booklist). |
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| The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado; illustrated by DaniWelcome to... Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania, a small coal-mining community beset by an illness that causes women to forget the grotesqueries they've witnessed.
Starring: best friends El and Vee, two queer teenage girls investigating the bizarre goings-on in their town.
Art alert: Dani's darkly expressive and scratchy artwork complements the graphic novel's creepy tone. |
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Books You Might Have Missed
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The Pandora Room
by Christopher Golden
What it's about: When the mythological Pandora's Box is found in a subterranean Iraqi city, Department of Defense fixer Ben Walker is called in to investigate the threats coming both from the artifact itself and from the jihadist forces eager to harness its power.
Why you might like it: This eerie claustrophobic chiller offers well-developed characters, formidable human and supernatural adversaries, and pulse-pounding tension.
Series alert: The Pandora Room is the 2nd Ben Walker novel, following the Bram Stoker Award-winning Ararat.
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Darkness on the Edge of Town
by Adam Christopher
What it's about: Chief Jim Hopper reveals long-awaited secrets to Eleven about his former life as a police detective in New York City, confronting his past before the events of the hit series, Stranger Things.
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The Dead Girls Club: A Novel
by Damien Angelica Walters
What it's about: decades after her friend’s obsessive belief in a witch’s ghost led to tragedy, Heather receives her late friend’s necklace in the mail and discovers that she is being targeted by a vengeful killer.
Reviewers say: "Especially appealing to readers who grew up with R.L. Stine's Fear Street series, Walters' first novel will find fans among a wide range of horror readers." (Booklist)
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